We are in Esztergom on 5 January, for an annual ecumenical commemoration ceremony for Saint Thomas a Becket. The service takes place on top of the hill facing the Cathedral, on which Saint Thomas’s small chapel stands, in icy weather. This part of the event is kept brief – some short readings and prayers. I am not surprised to be asked to read a prayer, but I am astonished to find myself suddenly co-opted by two ladies from the Budapest Anglican Church Choir (whose colleagues have failed to arrive) to sing a song in Hungarian about Saint Thomas to the tune of a mediaeval hymn. Given that I have never heard this or seen the text before the singing starts, and the fact that a TV station appears to be filming us, I can only trust the results are not too embarrassing. We all place lighted candles in the chapel and then retreat hurriedly down the hill to the Castle Museum for the next stage.
In the enormous Knights’ Hall of the Museum, we are welcomed by the Bishop of Szeged and hear some speeches and a musical performance. Last year I was one of the keynote speakers and used the opportunity to talk about lessons we can learn from Becket’s history – about tolerance, rule of law, resistance to the abuse of power, self-knowledge and standing up for what is right. On this occasion we hear from the Norwegian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva who speaks about the continuing importance of defending human rights, including freedom of religion, expression and assembly. The other main speaker is Fidesz’s Parliamentary Chief Whip Janos Lazar, who makes a thoughtful contribution about the tradition of Christian Democracy in European politics. But before that I am horrified to be dragged to the front of the Hall by the two ladies from the Anglican Church to help lead the singing of the British and Hungarian national anthems – at least lots of other people join in this time.
My day in Esztergom started with a meeting with the impressive new, independent Mayor Eva Tetenyi. She is grappling with a number of problems, not least the town’s indebtedness. But she has some imaginative ideas for moving forward including developing Esztergom into an eco-town. So maybe there is scope for some British expertise to be brought to bear here. By chance, the Mayor mentions a friend who runs the “Diana Memorial Society” in Esztergom and hopes to organise a permanent exhibition in memory of Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales there one day. (There is already a small exhibition at the world-famous Peto Institute in Budapest, which the Princess visited in 1992 when I was a junior diplomat in Hungary and helping to organise her trip here. The Institute treats motor-disordered patients, many of them children.)
So at the end of the day, my colleague Dóra and I find ourselves in this lady’s house in a room full of memorabilia and information about the Princess. It is quite astonishing to come across this shrine in a Hungarian town of a little over 30,000 people – and rather moving.